Jesus is “weeping on the streets”

The Archbishop of York’s graphic quote refers to the problems of knife crime and other pastoral priorities that he and many others believe are being sidelined as the Church of England squabbles over internal politics.

But now the 10-yearly Lambeth Conference looms and, with it, the prospect of another damaging row, this time over gay clergy. Several senior clergy have already said they will boycott the meeting later this month because they believe it has been compromised by the inclusion of American leaders who consecrated the Anglican communion’s first gay bishop.

Do you believe the Church’s internal divisions are causing it lasting damage in the wider world or are these vitally important issues that need dealing with once and for all?

the problems in society are due to one single fact – humans r too materialistic. i dont mean they love to shop or wear brands, i mean the human thinks it is only an animla therefore it strives to act like an animal hence the reason when there is greed and jealousy we behve without thinking of our soul. our soul is innate and directs us to behvaiours that counterattack the animal.

basially having a beleif in a creator is very important for humans to recognize what they are and where thya stand in this world.

The church is an outdated load of nonsense. The sooner it goes the better because it contributes to stifling any real debate about spiritual issues. I agree with the first poster that people are predominantly materialistic however.

It is not often that you can say that businesses seem to have higher moral values than the church, but most business do not condone discrimination and believe in equality and diversity and treating everyone with respect….unlike the church which believes in bigotry and prejudice.

Perhaps we should all start acting like adults and just take responsibility for our own lives rather than leave it to the church……and if you need to have a belief…then let’s beleive in the M&S equality policy….it’s bound to be far more enlightened than any church!

If people actually took responsibility for their own actions towards others and used their sense of right and wrong (passed down by decent parents) there would be no need for religion which is simply a crutch that shepherds those in need of guidance. Rather than trying not to act “like animals” we should take more guidance from them – their lack of religion and societal expectations means they do not form groups and wage war against each other based on religion/belief.

We call ourselves civilised and advanced, yet the vast majority of the worlds population subscribe to a viewpoint that most other people are inherenty wrong and need to be corrected, simply due to their differing beliefs – how narrow minded.

The whole British society is adrift and the incantations of an official church with little moral values and no authority won’t help. Secular ideologies killed millions in the 20th century and now the spread of liberal materialism is rotting Britain to the core. When a divorced lesbian living with a transgender female who have adopted a baby conceived through reproductive cloning replaces Rowan Williams at spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, people might start realising…

The church does not do more harm than good. Whilst the church may be in need of updating, it is vital lifebllod for many Christians. Without leaders, of any denomination, believers would be left adrift.
Christ’s commandment to love your neighbour goes to all human beings, not only straight males. The Bible does ndeed say that only males should be in positions of power in the church, and it does say the homsexuality is an abomination, but it also says adulteres or people who work on the Sabbath should be killed. So who should we kill first? The husband who cheated on his wife or the single mother who works on a Sunday in order to feed her children? It doesn’t take a genius to work out that in modern society such views are just wrong. God is intlligent and expects us to use the Bible for instruction into our own lives. If it were otherwise he would be a dictator God rather than the loving Father that I know him to be.

Gay vicars must be an abbomination to god. How can there be such a thing. This totally contradicts the bible and the teaching of Jesus. If a bishop believes that the bible is gods infalible word then how can this be…??? There definatelly needs to be a split somewhere, this will seperate the sheep from the goats.

congrats mr williams, gay weddings, women priests,now women bishops.you have singlehandedly managed in your tenure to promote the complete breakdown of the anglican church, and push many back to the catholic faith..
what next a female archbishop of canterbury i suppose!

The basic and necessary rules/laws for a civilized society do not require that they be backed up by a God though these rules serve as the basic blueprints for the major religions and many are similar. It is a common idea long touted by religions that one cannot be moral without religion’s guidance. As an inhabitant and participant of Earth, I’d say our planet is in huge trouble and whether or not church leaders are female or gay means less than nothing. While these church leaders argue, they become less and less relevant.

Unlike the CoE, the Roman Catholic Church has remained consistent in its teachings, from the days it was in a dominant position, during the 2Oth century’s Atheist repressions (Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao etc.), through the sexual revolution of the late 1960’s and until today in our post-feminist, post-ideological society. The Catholic Church has no official status anywhere apart from being the official religion in the Vatican. That makes me proud to be a Catholic.

How can the CoE expect any mainstream credibility when many of its leaders espouse such discriminatory views? In any other context such a stance would be seen as hopelessly out of date at best, and at worst, immoral, maybe illegal!

If you were building a respectable organisation from scratch can you imagine the reaction you would get if you explicitly banned women or gays from positions of authority (never mind deriving all your meaning and authority from an invisible sky-god with a child who was born from a virgin, etc, etc..)? But that’s the priviledged position religion enjoys and continues to demand by right.

The sheep are without a Shepherd. Time to come home, Anglican dear ones: For the Bible itself witnesses,
“Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.”
Where is the rock in all these liberal squabbles? The rock is the Chair of Peter as it always was. Remember it was never the worthiness of the Vicar of Christ that makes him the High Priest, Keeper of the Keys – it was the fact that the early church fathers all acknowledged that St Clement and those who followed were the legitimate Successors of St Peter the Chief Apostle – and so there was always meant in the original Constitution of the Church there to be a visible head and rock foundation. Come home dear Anglicans, its time.

Make sure to get as many clergy as possible to lord more
over the pitiful masses you created. Make sure they are
mostly molesters and depravers of innocence, after all,
God loves the lowest of men. Get your church in order
quickly, there’s not a lot of time left for debates and
discussions of who to let orate. Bless everyone up to the hilt and make sure we can still abort children up to
18 months as it shouldn’t make any difference, really.
When everyone there is all prettied up, prayed up, puffed
and pomped, is there any thing left for the hungry?

The English Church was born in a schism! (True the Catholic Church has not changed and look how much $ they have had to pay the victims worldwide by hanging on to beliefs (men only, no sex) that no longer have relevance in the modern, “real” world.)

This isn’t about gays or women in the clergy. It has always been about power. Men will wrangle and argue until there is nothing left of value in any organization. This is basically a power struggle over property, money, and authority. Look for the African’s to break away and create their own “Canterbury”.

We in the US are disappointed with a corrupt government. Look at our President who served his oil friends first and ruined a strong economy. Senators that line their own pockets and accept bribes daily from “special interests” are commonplace. The church only pretends to be different. They are just as corrupt. The pages of history teach us as much.

There is good reason to exclude women, gays, and other oppressed people. They could stir a revolution that makes the whole structure more just, pertinent and accessible. Jesus was killed for a reason. Do you actually think Men will permit true love and peace to flourish when it threatens his control, position, and power?